Sammy Newbold
HLTH 1100
Spring Semester 2015
Personal Reflection
Personal Reflection
In my Social Health and Diversity class, taught at Salt Lake Community College we studied about
many subordinate groups. Each person in the class was placed into a subordinate group that they do not
belong to and was required to complete ten hours of service learning and then produce a group paper
and a personal reflection paper.
I was placed in the elderly group and I fulfilled my service hours at Golden Living Center in
Taylorsville. During my service hours, I have spent time with the residents at Golden living talking and
doing activities with them. I have found my service to be both challenging and rewarding. I have gained
a whole new perspective of the retirement communities and I believe it gave awareness to my peers
and I truly believe that the elderly residents found joy in meeting with us students.
My service was challenging because I found it difficult to start conversations with the residents
and to find things we both could relate to. I think this was an issue because of such a large generation
gap and we were all strangers when we started the service learning hours. It was helpful that the
retirement home would have a few questions written on a white board in their activity center.
Questions like,” Where are you originally from?”, “How many children do you have? “, these questions
were relatively easy to answer and they opened other avenues to discuss.
The rewards definitely outweighed the challenges. One of the greatest rewards I found in my
experience was some of the life stories I was able to hear. There is a certain woman that comes to mind
that I was so fortunate to meet with. This lady was born in Berlin during World War 2. When she was
just a toddler her family was forced out of Berlin and into Germany. While fleeing their country she was
shot at while being carried in her mother’s arms, lucky for them the soldier was not a good shot.
Sammy Newbold
HLTH 1100
Spring Semester 2015
Personal Reflection
When they reached Germany, her family was sprayed with pesticides to kill lice, or any other parasites
they may have been carrying with them. Unfortunately the lasting effects of the pesticides made the
woman sterile and unable to bare children later in life. Her family was then forced out of Germany and
into refugee camps in Australia. She would stay in Australia until she took a three week boat ride to
America when she was twenty-three.
Hearing these kinds of stories of when everything was so different makes me really thankful for
how our society is structured. We are so lucky to be living in a country where we are safe, a place where
we will not be forced to live somewhere else because of our religion, race or political stance. This
experience has made me realize that all walks of life go into retirement homes, most are not there
because of the lack of love from relatives but because their loved ones love them enough to provide the
appropriate care. Before my service I thought people sent their relatives into elderly homes because
they did not want the responsibility of providing care for them.
I believe my service has had a positive effect on my community because I was able to invite
friends to come join me during my service hours. I believe it raised awareness that even those in
retirement homes need to have social interactions with others from outside the home. I think the
greatest impact is on the residents because a lot of them do get very lonely during the week. I think that
the residents were interested in hearing about our generation and just having someone to talk to made
them happy. Being able to make these elderly peoples day by simply talking to them is very humbling.
Having the opportunity to be an ally for the elderly was rewarding, not just to me but also for
the elderly community and the others I was able to influence to join me during my hours. Although I
believe I was the only one in the experience that found some challenges it did not affect the way I
Sammy Newbold
HLTH 1100
Spring Semester 2015
Personal Reflection
looked at my service experience. Had I not participated in my hours at Golden Living, I would have never
found out that I am in fact related to the woman from Berlin. Never did I think anyone in my family had
ever endured such events in their life time. The experience has created some lifelong friends for me and
I would like to continue to visit those elderly I have made friends with.